Pekudai: Blessed intuition

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“Intuition comes very close to clairvoyance; it appears to be the extrasensory perception of reality.” -Alexis Carrel

There is a space in any creative work where one finds oneself “in the zone”. The “zone” is an almost mythological place for creators, a location in time and space where ones mind, hands and heart are unified and focused in a blissful moment of purpose and concentration of such ease and effortlessness that one becomes unified with the universe at that moment. There is a rightness about such an instant that is heavenly, and affirms our place in the cosmos, if only for a few fleeting minutes.

Bezalel, the head architect of the desert Tabernacle, is credited with having received divine wisdom which allowed him the insights necessary to construct the unique and complex Tabernacle with its multiplicity of parts, components and utensils. At the end of the Book of Exodus, during the description of the completed structure, there is an unusual repetition of the fact that the Tabernacle was constructed according to divine instructions.

The Netziv comments on Exodus 39:43 that the reason for the repetition was because of a sense of surprise. Moses is surprised that Bezalel got all the details right, without having received the minute instructions and subsequent corrections that Moses thought he would have to convey. The Netziv further explains that Bezalel was able to figure out the correct details by looking within himself and having pure intentions. That combination gave him the insight and the intuition to know exactly what to do.

Ben-Tzion Spitz is the former Chief Rabbi of Uruguay and a candidate for the Knesset for the Zehut party. He is the author of three books of Biblical Fiction and hundreds of articles and stories dealing with biblical themes. Ben-Tzion is a graduate of Yeshiva University and received his Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University.